MANSFIELD — A body recovered from a Plymouth Township pond last February sparked discussion among Richland County emergency response officials.
Zackary Willis, 24, of Shelby, along with two other victims, were fishing on Mackey’s Pond last year when their boat capsized. The Plymouth Fire Department responded and found two victims out of the water, with Willis still in the water at an unknown location.
Willis’ body was recovered from the nine-acre pond the next day.
The incident led Richland County EMA Director Rebecca Owens, Madison Township Fire Chief Ken Justus and Mansfield Fire Chief Daniel Crow to form a committee discussing countywide response teams within the fire service.
“We had no water rescue teams to respond from within the county, so we had to call other counties and wait on them to assemble in order to work on locating that individual,” Justus told county commissioners Thursday.
“We need to figure out some type of system, similar to what some of the other counties in the State of Ohio have, that would enable equipment to be scattered about around the different fire stations in the county,” he said.
When a call occurs, Madison Township’s fire chief said the goal would be to have that equipment taken to the scene, where personnel from each department could assemble and utilize it for rescue.
“(That) would enable us to have a quicker response,” Justus said.
Richland County rescue teams
Richland County currently has no technical rescue teams, Justus said.
The goal of a technical rescue team is to provide specialized expertise for unusual rescue situations including rope rescue, water rescue, confined-space rescue, trench rescue, heavy vehicle stabilization and extrication and structural collapse rescue.
The county has a hazardous materials team, primarily operated out of Mansfield, but participation from other departments outside the city is lacking, he said.
There is a dive team within the Richland County Sheriff’s Office, but its purpose is recovery, not rescue.
“They do not have the certifications or the ability to perform emergency rescues,” Justus said. “They’re there to go back and do evidence recovery and, if necessary, body recovery.”
The committee of Justus, Owens and Crow have been working with Kramer and Associates Fire and EMS Consultants to draft a proposal for a project they’re asking commissioners to fund.
Proposed is an analysis of the participating fire departments and the individual capabilities and contributions of each in an “All Hazards and Special Rescue Response Needs Assessment.”
The assessment would evaluate the capability of county rescue teams as currently configured and deployed, and as they should evolve into the future.
Kramer and Associates is currently working for Mansfield to complete a study on the city’s fire department, Justus said.
“Our goal would be to fund this proposal and have him (Kramer) do the study while he’s already here,” the chief said. “It may save us some money, as opposed to having him come back another time.”
The assessment would cost about $9,500, with possible increases for mileage and lodging— a figure the committee is asking commissioners to fund.
Justus said those additional costs may be avoidable, should commissioners approve the assessment while Kramer is still in Mansfield completing work.
“We don’t have to approve it today, but I would like to start the ball rolling,” he said.
“My greatest concern is the longer we wait, the greater chance we have of somebody going in the water again and not having the personnel. I would like to avoid that,” the chief said.
Madison preparing for progress
Should the assessment move forward with approval from commissioners, Justus said the firm would publish its recommendations — at which point the committee could reconvene to talk logistics.
The committee’s goal is to have people trained at each department who can respond in the event of a water or technical rescue, as well as hazmat incidents.
Justus used Portage County as an example of where similar tactics have been implemented.
“(Portage) County has its own EMA-owned equipment that is kept in a separate building in the center of the county,” he said. “When there’s an emergency call out, there are some people, who are assigned to those teams, that have access to that building to respond that equipment.”
Some Madison Township firefighters were sent last year to training for swift water and rope rescues.
“I could have some people ready to hit the ground running when we get to that point,” Justus said.